vCenter RDU fails if there are disconnected hosts in the deploy to cluster

Products

• VMware vCenter Server 8.0

Issue/Introduction

This issue occurs under the following circumstances:

1 - You are upgrading to vCenter 8.0U3, including all patch versions of 8.0U3 up to P06.

2 - You are using the RDU (Reduced Downtime Upgrade) feature.

3 - You are deploying the new vCenter to a cluster where there are disconnected hosts.

In this case, the upgrade will fail.  To verify that this is the problem you are encountering, you can review the vlcm logs in /var/log/vmware/vlcm

You can see a stack trace similar to the one below:

panic: runtime error: invalid memory address or nil pointer dereference
[signal SIGSEGV: segmentation violation code=0x1 addr=0x238 pc=0x55ae47a1aa23]

goroutine 396 [running]:
server/component/deployment/internal.getSuitableTargetDeploymentHosts({0x55ae483785d0?,
0xc001124900?}, 0xc0013ba190)
       
bora/install/vcsa-vlcm/src/server/component/deployment/internal/resources.go:631
+0x163
server/component/deployment/internal.populateHostDetails({0x55ae483785d0,
0xc001124900}, 0xc000b6b5e0?, 0xc0013ba190)

Environment

vCenter Server 8.0U3

Resolution

To resolve this issue, remove any disconnected hosts from the cluster where the deployment will happen and retry the upgrade. There is no need to remove disconnected hosts from other clusters.